New Delhi, Dec. 29 -- Critics who said that the demonetisation drive by the government would cause major disruption to the economy had been proved wrong, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday, and cited a rise in indirect tax collection and winter crop sowing to indicate that the currency replacement exercise did not have a significant impact.
"Assessment (by critics) could be unreal. But revenue figures are real," Jaitley said.
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He said indirect tax collection in November had increased compared to a year ago. However, the finance minister did not provide November figures. For the April-November period, Jaitley said central indirect taxes had grown 26.2%. This included robust growth in excise duty (43.5%), services tax (25.7%) and customs duty (5.6%).
Jaitley said indirect tax collections by states did not show either a significant increase or decrease during November.
The finance minister said net direct tax collections till 19 December had increased 13.6%. Sowing of the rabi or winter crop had also witnessed a 6.3% rise, indicating no significant impact of demonetisation on the agriculture sector.
The government had announced demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency on 8 November to tackle black money and counterfeit notes.